B2B Marketing Blog

“About the only thing that comes to us without effort is old age.”
- noted cookbook author Gloria Pitzer

The best marketers may make their programs look effortless, but don’t be fooled. There is no such beast. Well planned, well executed strategic marketing is a lot of work. But then again, so is filing for bankruptcy, selling off your assets and shuttering your business - which is the alternative to putting in effort. Which makes me wonder why companies bother to invest in marketing activities and then put nearly zero effort into executing them. This is just throwing good money after bad.

I stumbled onto a great example of this while clicking through the online exhibitor’s list for an upcoming industrial B2B trade show. The show covers a huge range of industrial services and equipment used in product manufacturing. Popping open the self-authored company descriptions posted by each exhibitor I was stunned to see “marketing copy” like this:

Manufacturer & supplier of Cable/Wire Harness Assemblies, Power Supplies, LCD’s & Fans with Value Added & Integration Capabilities.

Precision CNC turning and machining. Design and manufacturer of custom rubber products.

There were literally dozens of entries like these. And these were all written by the companies themselves! And they were free! My jaw hung open. I was dumbfounded.

Unique selling proposition? Strategic positioning? Differentiation? Okay, let’s shoot lower. Coherent company description? This is a very broad-based manufacturing show. How is any potential buyer supposed to even understand what these companies could offer to them from those descriptions?

Trade shows - even a short two-day show like this one - are no small financial and time investment. Consider the possible costs:

exhibitor fees
booth purchase or rental
graphics, collateral and other marketing materials
promotional giveaways
manhours spent on show logistics and preparation
manhours spent at the booth (for multiple staffers)
travel expenses, meals and entertainment

And this is just the short list. So why, then, would any company that commits to a trade show then flush that investment away with a company description like this:

Extrusions - profiles large & small, tubing, rod, bar stock, co-extrusion, punching, cutting, drilling and forming. Thermoforming - pressure forming, deep draw, sheet thickness .030″ - .500″, twin sheet capabilities, high volume, long or short runs.

This isn’t even a company description; it’s a list processes, none of which are unique to this company!

You may be thinking, “Brian, you’re being too hard on these people. They’re doing the best they can.”

Maybe, but I seriously doubt it. Here’s a company description from another exhibitor at the same show:

Recognized as one of the largest & most reliable [xxxxxxxxx] service bureaus in the country, [Company A] offers clients high quality/low cost tooling & manufacturing. We offer full service to a